So back in the old testament days God made his people sacrifice animals. Reason being was because man had sinned and the only way we could have fellowship with God or be right with God was if His wrath was appeased. Sounds crazy but ever since man fell in the garden we have been given a sin nature. God wants us to be with Him so He decided that if we were willing we could sacrifice animals on an altar...an animal without spot or blemish. And what that meant to God was that the sins that we committed were being transferred to that animal and it dying on the altar was that sin being punished. (Poor little animals). But that was the way it had to be, because God's rule is...where there is sin...there must be punishment...that punishment is death.
SO God raised up some priests and required them to do all of these rituals. Once a year on the day of atonement, God required the priest to go into the temple and sacrifice a lamb on the altar of God for his sins....then another one for the sins of the people. Sounds simple right? lol it definitely wasn't though! I'm going to put a layout of the temple on here for you to see a clear vision of it.
So below is the layout. There was an outer court, with the altar, brazen altar. Then u walk into a tent and you were standing inside the holy place, and there was a table with bread on it, a candlestick, and the altar of incense. Towards the back of the room...there was a veil, that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies housed the ark of the covenant...which was nothing but a chest that had a seat on top of it. Inside the ark was the ten commandments and a few other objects. But the seat that was on top was called the "mercy seat". This was where the prepared sacrifice would be placed and it was where the glory of God would be manifested to the priest.
So like I said earlier the priest had to go in and do all of these rituals for the forgiveness of sins and ultimately lay the sacrifice on the altar. If God accepted the sacrifice the Shekinah glory would come (a cloud of smoke) and it would rest upon the mercy seat. Sounds easy but if that priest wasn't holy before God and he went in treating the things of God anything but Holy he was struck dead. Not because God is mean but because He is a holy God. So the people would tie a rope around his leg when he would go in and they would wait patiently out in the courtyard. The priest would jingle his outfit which had little bells on the end of it if God had excepted the sacrifice. If they heard no bells after a while they knew he was dead. The rope around his leg was for them to be able to drag him out...because they weren't going in. So that was the deal EVERY year! This thing had to be done in a very reverent way.
So the really cool thing is that Jesus is described as the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world! So that means that God had already planned on sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. The final sacrifice...The cross wasn't some last minute solution to a terrible problem that the devil caused. It was THE plan since before the fall of man! The animal slain on the altar for man's sins were a picture pointing to Jesus...all those years before he came. So when Jesus came and lived perfect he was like a lamb without spot or blemish. He was taken to the cross to die like a lamb being led to the slaughter. HE died on the cross bearing ALL of our sins forever (not just for one year) and said..."it is finished". Then he died. Now we know that HE went to Hell and preached to the captives... (Abraham..Isaac..Etc.) and then he rose again! But there was so much more! In Hebrews ch 9 it talks about Christ as our NEW High Priest... It talks about how there was an earthly tabernacle...but that the heavenly one was so much greater...and how Jesus went into the temple as our high priest (like one above in picture) and he laid himself on the mercy for us! So instead of carrying a lamb slain into the temple with him...He went in AS the lamb! I can just see that so clear in my head! Jesus bloody and bruised...beaten and torn...pushing his way through the gate of the temple...through the outer court...passed the brazen altar...into the Holy Place...and into the Holy of Holies to lay himself on that altar for us! And whats so exciting is that when God saw that...HE was pleased Forever!! There will never be need for another animal sacrifice again!! God's wrath had been calmed on His son Jesus! And the cool thing was...That veil between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies had been torn! It's historical...when Jesus died..they recorded that somehow the literal veil in the temple had been torn from TOP TO BOTTOM...I ll tell you how...it was Jesus! That veil separated God's presence from His people! No longer!! We can now walk right into the Holy of Holies converted by the Blood of Jesus!!! We can have fellowship with GOD!! Jesus is a way maker!! Yes he has made a way for us in our everyday lives...but most importantly...He has made a way into the Holy of Holies where we can ALWAYS have fellowship with God!
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